Chapter 102: Lin City Prison
“Enough with the nonsense. Only this many people escaped from Lin City? Where did the rest go?” Zhan Yun asked coldly.
The man whose neck was pinned by Zhan Yun’s dagger immediately answered honestly, “N-no… there were others… They followed the base leader to the prison.”
The boss of the Lin City Base had originally been a convict who escaped from prison. After the Lin City Base was destroyed, it turned out they had fled right back there. Thinking about it, it did make some sense—after all, a prison had high walls and iron gates. Though much smaller than a base and with poorer living conditions, it was still safer.
“Then why didn’t you go with them?” Zhan Yun raised an eyebrow.
“I—we…” The man stammered.
“Speak!” Zhan Yun had no patience. He applied force with his hand, and the dagger sliced a bloody cut across the man’s neck.
“Ow, ow! I’ll talk, I’ll talk!” the man cried out in pain, then poured out the whole story like beans spilling from a bamboo tube.
A few days earlier, the Lin City Base had suddenly been besieged by zombies, including many evolved types. The base didn’t have enough weapons. Although there were some ability users, they were unorganized and had long grown accustomed to a life of comfort, so their combat strength was extremely weak. They quickly collapsed under the pressure.
When the base leader realized the situation was hopeless, he ordered his men to gather supplies. Taking a large amount of resources, they charged out of the base, abandoning all the elderly, the weak, women, and children as bait to attract the zombies.
The group hiding in the village were all ordinary people, but they were relatively strong. They usually followed the “Eight Vajra” around, since the ability users still needed subordinates. So when the Eight Vajra fled, they brought these people along as well and even gave them a truck.
The situation was extremely chaotic at the time—zombies everywhere, humans screaming and fleeing. Even after their vehicles had driven far from the base, many zombies were still chasing them. This man, who had been driving, personally witnessed someone being pushed off the vehicle ahead of them. In order to survive, those ability users had actually shoved the ordinary people riding with them off the truck as bait.
Seeing with their own eyes how the person who was pushed off was surrounded and devoured by zombies, one could imagine the shock felt by those in this truck. They realized that the Eight Vajra were utterly inhuman. If they kept following them, who knew if they themselves would become the next sacrifices? After a brief discussion, they simply jerked the steering wheel and drove off in another direction.
Because there were so many zombies, the vehicles ahead were too busy to look after themselves and didn’t even notice that one truck was missing, allowing these people to escape successfully.
Coincidentally, someone on the truck was from this village and knew that it had already been abandoned, so they brought everyone here. Although the weather was freezing, the cellar was still warmer than outside.
Later, some scattered zombies followed the scent to the village, but since they were hiding in the cellar, the zombies couldn’t do anything to them and just wandered around the village like headless flies. They didn’t dare go out and kept hiding in the cellar. Fortunately, there was some food on the truck, which allowed them to survive until now.
However, that food was almost gone. So when they heard people approaching, they hid by the cellar entrance to spy on the situation outside. Seeing that Zhan Yun and the others were warmly dressed and looked healthy—clearly ability users who hadn’t suffered much—they developed the idea of robbing them. After all, they had followed the Eight Vajra for some time and had a few guns, so they felt confident. No matter how powerful ability users were, they couldn’t beat bullets!
Who could have known… these ability users… were outrageously powerful…
Zhan Yun recalled the map he had seen earlier. Lin City Prison was located in a relatively remote area and wasn’t on their planned route.
“Let’s go.” Zhan Yun threw the man he was holding onto the ground and turned toward the snowfield patrol vehicle.
The man was roughly tossed aside but didn’t dare make a sound. He scrambled away, making room for them.
“Brother Zhan, are we really just leaving like this?” Zheng Jiahe asked in a low voice.
“What? You still want to take these robbers with us?” Zhan Yun shot him a sideways glance.
Recalling how viciously these people had opened fire on them without mercy, Zheng Jiahe immediately shook his head hard.
Seeing that he’d come to his senses, Zhan Yun continued forward, and the others followed closely.
However, at that moment, a faint voice suddenly came from somewhere unknown: “S-save me…”
Zhan Yun’s team instantly stopped. Although the voice was very weak, they were all ability users, and their senses had been enhanced to some extent, so they all heard it.
They looked around, trying to locate the source of the cry for help. It sounded like a woman’s voice, and she seemed extremely weak.
At that moment, Cheng Qi happened to notice a flash of panic on the face of one of the people lying on the ground. He immediately sensed something was wrong. He stepped forward, kicked the man over, and stomped on his chest, lightning forming in his hand as he threatened, “What was that sound just now? Where did it come from?!”
The man turned pale with fright and trembled as he pointed toward a dilapidated house at the entrance of the village.
Cheng Qi immediately headed in that direction. The house was empty, with nothing inside. He froze for a moment, then quickly moved to the cellar entrance outside the house.
When he lifted the cellar lid, he saw a naked woman lying prone on the wooden stairs. She struggled to raise her head and look at the man standing before her, weakly saying, “S-save me…”
After speaking, she fainted again. Cheng Qi immediately turned his head and shouted loudly, “Wu Jing! Cheng Jiao! Come here!”
Wu Jing and Cheng Jiao, who had been called, both showed looks of confusion, but they quickly realized something was wrong and hurried toward the cellar.
These people had been eating, drinking, sleeping, and relieving themselves in the cellar for days, so it was filthy and reeked of a nauseating stench. Fortunately, Cheng Jiao was a wind-type ability user and blew the smell away with strong gusts of wind. When they saw the woman clearly, they were instantly furious. She looked to be around thirty years old. Not only was she completely naked, her body was covered in bruises, and her lower body was in a complete mess. It was obvious what she had been through…
“Quick! Bring hot water and blankets!”
With Song Chengshu and Su Ruizhe present, preparing those items was easy. They didn’t bother with formalities. Su Ruizhe directly took blankets, clean towels, and a wooden bucket out of his spatial storage, while Song Chengshu filled the bucket with hot water.
When the people lying on the ground saw Su Ruizhe produce these items out of thin air, greed flashed uncontrollably in their eyes, though it was quickly hidden. Only the leader—the man whose neck Zhan Yun had held earlier—showed terror and despair. He was a smart man. A space ability was the kind of power that easily attracted covetous eyes. How could someone display it so casually in front of so many people? He had already realized what Su Ruizhe’s unguarded actions meant… They probably weren’t going to survive this time.
Wu Jing and Cheng Jiao worked together to pull the woman out of the cellar, wrap her in a blanket, and carry her into the empty house. After closing the door, they began cleaning her body.
Meanwhile, Cheng Qi and the others didn’t stay idle. They searched the cellars of the remaining houses one by one and ended up finding six more women. The oldest looked close to forty, while the youngest was only sixteen or seventeen. None of them were in better condition than the first woman; they were all barely alive and in a miserable state.
“Beasts!” Zhao Bing, as a soldier, despised such acts the most. His eyes blazed with fury, and he ground his teeth in anger.
“Old Zhao, before the apocalypse, if someone committed murder, robbery, and rape, and the crimes were combined—wouldn’t that be enough for a firing squad?” Zhan Yun patted Zhao Bing on the shoulder.
“Exactly! These beasts deserve to die!” Zhao Bing immediately understood Zhan Yun’s meaning. Although base regulations stated that soldiers were not allowed to harm survivors, that depended on the person. These subhuman monsters were not protected by base rules.
Zhan Yun nodded and then shot Cheng Qi a look.
Cheng Qi curled his lips into a cold smile and strode toward those people. They had already been beaten badly and were mostly unable to move. Seeing him approach with that grim smile, they immediately began begging for mercy. Some were so frightened that they wet themselves—but soon, there was no movement at all.
Cheng Qi came from a military family, had grown up in army camps, and had served in the military himself. His hands had been stained with blood before. Toward beasts worse than animals, he felt no mercy whatsoever.
“Azhan, what about these people… what should we do?” Song Chengshu asked.
They had rescued seven women—they couldn’t just leave them unattended.
“Have Xiao Zhe take out a vehicle. You and Zhang Shuoliang drive. We’re going to Lin City Prison,” Zhan Yun said.
They couldn’t possibly abandon these women. Given their current condition, without proper care, they probably wouldn’t survive.
Because it wasn’t on their route, Zhan Yun had originally planned to check on the Lin City Base on the return trip. But now, it seemed they needed to make a special detour.
If the ordinary people who followed the Eight Vajra were already this inhuman, then the Eight Vajra themselves—and the ability users they had gathered—would be even worse.
The survivors in Lin City Prison were likely living a fate worse than death.
Author’s Note:
Sorry, my dear readers!!! I meant to click “preview” to check for sensitive words, but somehow the system bugged out and posted it directly!!! I’m about to lose my mind over this awful JJ system!!! I’ve already replaced it—everyone can read it normally now~~
Also, I saw some readers asking in the previous chapter: where did the soldiers of the Lin City Base go? What happened to them?
Author: Meow meow meow?? Where would Lin City Base get soldiers from?
The setting of Lin City Base is that it’s a private base established by a group of escaped convicts. It’s also the place where, in the previous life, the shou met a tragic death. So there are absolutely no soldiers there. The base with soldiers is Wan City Base~~ The soldiers from Wan City Base are currently heading south, preparing to join the southern base~~ Don’t worry, everyone~~ chu~~
Thank you for reading 🙂 I hope you all liked my translations. If you enjoyed my work, please consider buying me a Ko-Fi 😉
